User Reviews

Overall Rating:

Value Rating:

Submitted by
Edwin Debrakins
a Audio Enthusiast

Date Reviewed: March 12, 2014

Bottom Line:

I know the carver tfm's are one of the best out there I own a carver tfm35x and I use it to power my cerwin vega d9's and it sounds incredible it makes my house shakes at low volumes that should tell you more about this amp .

Found my TFM 35 at Goodwill for $24.99 and it worked and sounded good. (The meter lights were out). I then took it to Roland at Hitech Audio in Gresham Oregon for a full service replacing all the caps and anything else needing upgrading. I had him replace the lamps with blue LED's and that part only lasted a week upon which I brought it back to have normal lamps put in. My bad for not listening to his advice!
I am using it with a Xiang Lheng tube preamp (model 7 updated clone) and dahlquist DQ-10,s and a M&k MX 80 sub. ( with a Dayton audio SPA amp)
This set up with the Carver sounds incredible. A very warm amp in terms to sound quality. The Dahlquists are happy with the power this amp has and I have absolutely no regrets putting the money into the update. ( $450.00)

This review is for the TFM-35. I purchased it for $180 from a local pawnshop near Tampa, FL. I have to tell you, I always thought Carver amps were un-appealing and unattractive. I changed the Trimpot right away (check out tntaudio.com) and am always blown away by this cheap part change for 5 bucks and 3 soldier joints. I have had numerous amps from the likes of Adcom, Speakercraft, Linn, Onkyo, SAE, and Rotel. I am currently bi-amping my Sapphire ST2's with the TFM-35 (highs) and my Rotel RB-990BX (lows). That should tell you exactly what this amp is good at from my last statement. It is a superb amplifier for the higher frequencies, but is somewhat lacking in the lower frequencies. When you take the cover off, you will see 2 tiny 10000 uf caps. Probably a lot of the reason it sucks with the boom boom.
If you are using a subwoofer, or if you would be using this amp for standmount/ bookshelf speakers and you only have a few hundred to spend, I would say it should be on your short-short list for reviews. Definitely change the Trimpots or pay your local Mr. fix it guy 20-30 bucks to do it. It takes a 680 ohm trimpot, but my local electronics store didn't have a 680, so I got a 1K ohm, or 1000 ohm, pot.

I bought a TFM 35 brand new years ago..had to be 1995 or something. Had it hooked to a Carver C-17v pre with a cd player i dont remember and a set of Bose 601 s3. It rocked!!! Had everything stolen except the amp about 10 years ago and just recently decided to build a reasonable system for power and clarity. I dug up the amp from the garage and she was dead. By divine intervention (and the internet) i came across Hi-Tech Audio in Oregon and sent her in for the full treatment. While awaiting its return i added a Carver C-16 Pre, B&W 704's, an Oppo BDP-83 Blu Ray/CD, Morrow Audio MA-3 IC's and SP-3 speaker cables...and i bought another TFM 35 and sent it off to Hi Tech. It took 3 months to get the first TFM 35 back..but lemme tell ya, it was worth the wait. This thing sounds so freaking awesome i cant even believe it. Im back into listening to music again!!! I can only imagine what it will sound like when the second amp comes back and i will have 700W/ch with plenty of reserve power that the B & W's need to come alive.

If any of you have this unit, i highly recommend sending it in for the revitalization. It sounds A LOT better than it did the day i bought it...almost 20 years ago. You can pick up used TFM 35's on ebay for around $225...if you can get one that needs repair for less than 200 and send it in for "the treatment", you will have an unbelievable power source at an unbelievable price....and it will go another 20 years.

For the price you can get this thing these days ($400-$500) it is amazing. Very durable as mine has lasted for decades with heavy use and has always sounded great. I have often thought of getting another one.